In light of the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement, which is putting pressure on universities and schools to demolish statues of slavers, hundreds of parents and former students of a London school named after an 18th century slave owner are calling for it to be renamed in honour of one of Britain’s first Black headteachers.
A petition has been signed by more than 500 parents over the past week calling for Beckford School in West Hampstead to be renamed after former head teacher Beryl Gilroy. Gilroy, a Guyanese who emigrated to London as part of the Windrush generation, headed the primary school between 1969 and 1982.
The school is believed to have been named in the 1920s after William Beckford, a former Lord Mayor of London, who owned an estate in Jamaica with more than 3,000 slaves, or his son, an artist who lived off proceeds of the estate.
